Links to 185 Psychology PhD programs rank-ordered by quality. A comprehensive guide to graduate schools. Search and rank 23,517 master's programs and PhD programs at 2,356 universities in the United States

Friday, June 6, 2008

A PhD Degree, or Doctor of Philosophy degree, is the pinnacle of academic achievement. It means that you have achieved a level of expertise in your field that few others can match. While one of the most difficult of advanced degrees to attain, it is a excellent start to a career in research or academics. Here are some tips to help you earn a PhD.

Step1. Earn the underlying degrees. Most PhD programs require candidates to have at least a bachelor's degree in their chosen field, or even a master's degree. You will need this basic education as a foundation on which to build your PhD knowledge.

Step2. Find a PhD program. Once you meet the initial requirements for admission, find a PhD program that fits your needs. Make sure the program is well-respected and see what kinds of jobs those that earn PhDs eventually pursue. Apply to at least three PhD programs to increase your odds of admission.

Step3. Master the subject. Each PhD program has different requirements for gaining the PhD. All will require you to master a subject by class work and intensive research in your chosen field. This research will eventually form the basis of your dissertation.

Step4. Write your Thesis. A thesis is a formal paper written on a subject you choose demonstrating your mastery of that subject. You will have to present your thesis to faculty members and defend it orally before earning your PhD.

Friday, May 30, 2008

I’ve had a vast array of job experiences. While in high school, I worked as maid for a local motel. While attending college, I worked as an office worker in the Sociology Department and Museum of Fine Arts.

After college, I was a social worker for six years.

Following a career change, I spent the next several years working as an editor and technical writer in various publishing and software companies, including Microsoft. And…whenever I had any spare time, I worked on my true passions: creative writing and art.

I’ve worked with maids, nurses aides, office workers, people with PhDs, and millionaires. I’ve worked with people subsisting on welfare and those living…and dying…in nursing homes. I’ve worked with software engineers, project managers, and vice presidents, as well as publishers, artists, and writers.

And…in that vast array of different jobs, locations, and peoples, what have I observed?

I’ve observed maids and nurses aides who are as sharp, witty, and insightful as famous guests on television talk shows.

I’ve observed employees who had made millions in stock options, standing in the espresso line at Microsoft, bragging about how many coupons they had for free lattes.

I’ve observed post-graduate students getting their PhDs, cramming hard to write their dissertations in time, sweating over passing.

And, I watched in amusement, as a coworker who had recently received his PhD spent 30 minutes hanging a sign over his cubicle that read, “The Doctor Is In.” Otherwise, he’d just be a plain technical writer, like the rest of us.

Based on my observations from working with many types of people, millionaires and PhDs are not smarter or better than the rest of humanity. But there is one major difference: Confidence! Because of their situation, they feel much more secure about the future.

So, if millionaires aren’t smarter, why do they have a lot more money than most of us? A few reasons come to mind:

People with money often inherit it. Or, they inherit the opportunities that come from their families having money. This often includes access to a network of well-heeled businessmen and investors. They are in the right place at the right time. For example, during Microsoft’s heyday, many employees became millionaires and retired after working with the company only 5 years. People who make millions from the ground up, from their own efforts, are rare and usually have a good business sense. Most millionaires aren’t in this category. And, if people with advanced college degrees aren’t really smarter, they must have something (besides confidence). So, what is it?

They have the financial resources to pay for college, whether from their family’s savings, financial aide, or working their way through school. They usually have good memories, or at least a good short-term memory that enables them to memorize numerous facts they promptly forget after the exams are over. (Most educational systems still reward good memories over the ability to analyze and creatively solve problems.) They have a certain amount of discipline. (Or, they hire ghostwriters to write their masters theses and doctoral dissertations for them! Yes—some people do this!) Life circumstances, including those that evolve from the choices we make, can make a big difference. For example, when people get married or have children at a young age, it limits their opportunities for going to school. Sometimes people must take care of disabled family members or younger siblings. There are many life events, some unforeseen, that can make it nearly impossible for someone to complete a college, or even a high-school, education. But most of these have nothing to do with intelligence.

So! If you have been feeling “less than” because you don’t have a degree, an advanced degree, or a million dollars in the bank, please stop beating yourself up. Most likely, you are just as smart as the next person. You are just on a different path.

And, contrary to popular belief, having a college degree doesn’t automatically mean you’ll earn more money. I’ve known service workers who work for themselves--for example, guys who mow lawns, paint houses, and wash windows–who earn more than many software engineers!

I’ve also worked with people from all over this country, and people from countries all over the world – including Asia, Vietnam, Canada, Ireland, England, France, Indonesia, India, and Russia. I have found most of these people to be intelligent, charming, and sincere. Yes, our customs (and our senses of humor) may be different, but most of our needs are very similar.

Yet stereotypes abound. Some people feel a need to judge others, or themselves, by superficial differences. But when all is said and done, no group of individuals is smarter, better, or less than another. We each have our own talents and strengths. As well as our own weaknesses.

We each live life the best way we know how, learning lessons along the way. And, hopefully, learning tolerance and compassion as well.

You may be thinking that you will be a failure in internet marketing just because your English teacher from high school gave you an ‘F’ for your bad grammar and simple vocabulary.

And to top it off, your dear teacher probably even said that you will never make it as a writer! I’m here to give you hope because you don’t need to be all that great in writing to make money online.

Don’t let your misconception scare you. To write successfully online, you don’t need a PhD in English. A lot of successful internet marketers don’t use ‘professional’ and ‘impressive’ English in their writing. And they AIN’T gonna start!

You may be protesting: “Yes however, by procuring a transcendent lexicon and capitalizing gargantuan resplendent words will galvanize people”

Did you understand that last sentence without spending 10 minutes with a dictionary? Did my big words impress you? Probably not, if I said that to you face to face, you probably thought I was an English obsessed weirdo!

You probably wouldn’t bother reading an article that uses those crazy words, unless you are a true masochist. And I can guess only a very small percentage of people enjoy reading something like that (if any).

You probably wouldn’t want to check up each individual word, so let me translate. It says: “Yes however, by having a great vocabulary and using big fancy words will impress people.”

Did you understand that? YES of course it’s so simple! And I’m guessing most people who can read English didn’t have to go the dictionary to understand that phrase. Let me explain a simple truth, we make most money by clear communication, not by complex confusion!

The clearer we can get our message through to our internet readers, the easier it is to sell to them and therefore make more money! That’s why you shouldn’t use professional and proper English in internet marketing all the time.

Additionally, using relax ‘everyday’ language with your customers gives off a feeling that they are talking to a real live human being, which works better when communicating through the internet. Don’t be some intimidating corporate robot that’s totally not relatable to them.

We want to make our writing so simple to understand that 99% of the population will know what we are offering. Forget impressing the 1% of the population that has a huge vocabulary, because they will certainly understand our writing also!

So for those of you that had a hard time getting an ‘A’ in English class, CONGRATULATIONS! You have an advantage over other internet marketers that are brainwashed into thinking that the best way of writing is to use ‘higher-level’ English (like me – darn it!).

You don’t have to break the bad habit of using overly ‘sophisticated’ English. So now you have no excuse for your sixth grade level English. For those of you who graduated with a PhD in English, CONGRATULATIONS! That shows dedication and commitment.

However, no one will understand you if you continue writing as you did for your more ‘sophisticated’ colleagues! Tone it down a little when you are working with your internet marketing business.

Why do you think major newspaper write in simple English? And why are the best selling magazines written in simple English?

Yup, you’ve guessed it. They write in simple English so that more people will understand their content and more people will buy! You can show off your ‘superior’ English to the few people who actually care.

So if you are guilty of having perfect ‘sophisticated’ English in your message, re-edit everything so that even the dumbest sixth grader will understand it. You’ll have messages that will be clear and more people will understand what the heck you are talking about!

If you have your graduate study completed, you can take up your PhD programs in Clinical social work either online or off line. Most of the off line universities have online presence too.

Social work is a common subject for doing PhD programs. However, you will find PhD programs in clinical social work is not really so rare either. If you want to such a program check out the following checklist to make sure you are eligible to do the program.

1. Doctor in philosophy can be done after any graduate school study in a related area. Normally, the PhD programs in Clinical social work are 120 course works to be completed. The basic eligibility criterion is to have a Master's degree from any graduate school of social work or in a closely related field.

2. An exceptional performance record is needed in the graduate school as well. The normally expected level of performance is 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

3. Two years or 3000 hours of clinical practice after the graduation. This practice should have been full time and fully supervised performance of the candidate.

4. Good mastery over written and spoken English.

5. A practicing license should be available to the person in the appropriate state as per law.

6. Personal therapy experience is preferred though not a must for applying.

If you fit into these eligibility conditions for PhD programs in clinical social work, the person need to take care of his financial expenses for the program. Of course, the above listed requirements are standard and most of the institutes do look for a similar eligibility conditions. There could be minor changes between the institutes and their eligibility criteria. Similarly, if you are better qualified, then the universities also offer you a financial discount. Ask for financial aid for PhD programs in clinical social work and in most cases if it is an on-campus program then the universities normally offer teaching and research assistantship in addition to the option to practice in the University hospital. It is also possible that there could be fee waiver depending upon your eligibility for the same. The fee waiver eligibility varies with universities and their own choice to society.

You would find that all these conditions once fulfilled you would be able to complete the PhD programs in clinical social work without much issue. Some of the universities and institutes affiliated to these universities also offer distance program using online teaching methods. There are a number of reasons why online PhD programs in clinical social work is preferred. They have the distinct advantage of working asynchronously. You can work at your own pace and time. This makes it all the more attractive. Secondly, when the PhD programs in clinical social work come over the net, it becomes cheaper. Content delivery in some of the cases is done during contact sessions conducted on campus.

Any university degree is worth having, even more so are the advanced degrees such as the PhD’s because these sort of degrees certify you as an authority in any field which you decide to specialize in.

These fields may vary in nature but if you have a PhD you tend to set yourself apart from the rest in your field and increase your capacity for potential and future earnings. Few people can boast of having a PhD degree with no employment or career prospects as an advanced degree almost always guarantees some better form of career placement. This career placement better positions you in any career or occupation where you decide to place yourself.

PhD’s aren’t all about career advancement and earning a bigger paycheck. In any field which you choose to get your PhD, there will be specialists imbued with such knowledge who can help you by telling you more about what you need to know in your field of learning. The level of knowledge that you get will also help you in deciding how best to proceed with any future career prospects. Sometimes in different work scenarios we need some differentiation between others who have more or less the same skills and capabilities that we possess. By getting and additional degree you give yourself an edge over other people.

There are different places where an individual can get a PhD degree. You can enroll in an institution of higher learning for such purposes. These institutions of higher learning have different faculties and different courses which you can enroll in all in order to get the knowledge that you desire. Most people however have problems with finding a university to enroll in, in their immediate neighborhoods, part of the reasons limiting their ability to enroll for these programs is largely due to their employment constraints.

For people who have these constraints in terms of getting the education that they need, they can easily enroll for higher learning courses online. Enrolling for these courses online will give you the ability to get your degree flexibly. All you have to do is have an internet connection and a computer with which to download your course material where you will. You can also submit your assignments and any project material that you have to submit through these same means. Attendance at the physical campuses of most online institutions is hardly necessary. You can get your degree while you’re at home or in the office, it’s all up to you.

There are different benefits to getting a PhD degree online; these different benefits include the flexibility in terms of scheduling and the cost issues. Getting a PhD online is cheaper than getting the degree by physically attending the institution. You save money from everything from the costs of tuition to the money you also save on transportation visiting one institution of higher learning or the other. Most schools also require that people physically attending courses in such institutions pay fees and dues for other unnecessary activities. As an individual taking a degree online you are usually exempted from auxiliary fees dues and other unnecessary payments that you’d have to make.